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Refining is not merely an enhancement but a fundamental requirement to isolate individual rare earths. Without it these mineral deposits are useless
Wait til Bloomberg publishes the table for light vs heavy rare earths
Good luck to the European governments trying to convince their population of redirecting refining back to Europe.
Rare Earth are Rare in quantities economical justifiable to mine. How much rock do you have to crush to get a kg material, etc . ( Around 50k ton)
And we need Heavy RE. The U.S has mostly only Light RE. Useless.
They dominate in the magnet production. Sintering and making neo arc segments.
This is the real problem, REEs are usually only useful at extremely high purity levels, and they’re a pain to separate from each other. Fast scalable refining would change the game and make rare earths abundant
I asked ChatGPT:
“How long would it take to rebuild a rare earth supply chain without relying on China?”
AI’s answer: At least 20 years.
⸻
Why does “de-Sinicizing” the rare-earth industry take at least two decades?
It’s not about lacking mines —
the real monopoly lies in the
Some say "hey China just shot itself in the foot and the West well develop its own refining". Well assuming it does at scale, in the otimistic case of few years, can the key tech supply chains handle a few years of supply dearth? In a few years many things can happen in key
What gives China this dominance? Energy cost? Environmental standards? Willingness to sell below cost?
Exactly. The advantage was never in the ore itself, but in mastering advanced chemistry, standards, and industrial scaling. In Mining Is Dead, we analyze how China strategically bet on the midstream, while the West got tangled up in permitting, excessive legal frameworks, and
I think something to do with the East culture, influenced by Confucius. The East care a lot about the "root"
Dysprosium is actually a choke point for heavy REEs. It doesn't occur in high concentrations in most rare earths mines and you need sizable amounts of Dysprosium to make rare earth permanent magnets or Neodymium Iron Boron Magnets
Safe to say they dominate both based on this chart. When is 60% market share not dominating?
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Harvey Rosenblum
@harveyrosenblum
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it is extremely difficult to consider the Foreign Policy towards Communist China by the @BillClinton @GeorgeWBush31 @BarackObama and @JoeBiden administrations as anything less than inept, bordering on treasonous.
Who thought it was a good
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Because the processes are toxic as heck, and only countries with NO environmental regulations could refine this stuff.
We can't do anything in the US anymore. I wonder if South American and African countries could be an opportunity given their desire for growth.
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One America News
@OANN
China tightens its grip on Rare Earth minerals: What’s at stake for America?
U.S.-Asia Institute Trustee @TheDragonFeeder says the military, auto industry, and high-tech industry may encounter real problems.
Watch OAN Live Here: live.oann.com/home.ktv?utm_s
0:43
We just need to pick a state that we dont mind absolutely destroying environmentally, and set up refining there.
I propose Alabama
Erm no China does dominate REEs as they are the main figure head of BRICS.. Myanmar has a dark corridor in China for REEs..? Along with many other countries in BRICS? YES they do INFACT DOMINATE.. BOTH mining and refining..?
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Same with lithium
Maybe even more so than rare earth
China is the only one processing it that I know of
Processing.. once other countries begin processing their own sh$t and cut the red tape things change in a hurry..
Do you know how fast that can change under emergency powers?? Thank China for showing their hand too early. Thank Trump for understanding where China was going.
We might just be able to save this part of the world from them in time. Will it get tough?? Yes. Definitely
Yes. We need patents and IP to figure out how to refine these metals. But that is already happening. And we are buying up large mines in Africa, ASEAN and Latin America. In a few years we will be the second largest producer of refined rare earth metals. Our steel production
The West offshored the dirty, complex, and crucial part of the process. That part now is the process.
Refining, not mining, is the real choke point for rare earths. Policymakers and supply chain planners need to address this imbalance to reduce import risk.
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Refining of rare earths is highly polluting (radioactive waste produced). The Australian rare earths are refined in Malaysia for this very reason. It will be difficult for Western refining capacity to be introduced unless concessions are granted
We need to get more like Caldera the freedom & partners needed to succeed restoring refining capacity here. They have plans & even funding I think to do it if they are allowed. all American Dynamism folks
Refining REE is "dirty."
Environmentalists emasculated the US and EU by shutting down domestic refining.
Idiots.
It’s very dirty n our EPA regulations will not allow us to refine them here!
Maybe you don’t consider 60% mkt share dominant, but it seems pretty dominant to me. Especially when it’s about 6X the US’s share. If it’s a football game and your opponents players are 6X better than yours, what’s the spread on that game?
Indonesia will likely emerge as a significant player in the refining of rare earth minerals. The country has already invested in nickel, copper, gold refining. Rare earth minerals are likely to be next.
Reelementtech.com producing all rare earth refining. Its a 5 year old company
You are right that China's economy is fundamentally a paper-based construct, and it is destined to falter when its access to mineral resources declines. Without these critical resources, China will face inevitable collapse.
On top of having the largest mineral resources, China also leads, by far, the refinery industry.
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We need to ramp that up here. We also need to more effectively retaliate against China and the CCP for its actions.
Theres at least 4 RE refiners in the wings who will benefit;
Lynas and Iluka in Australia
bbc.com/news/articles/
Caremag and Solvay in EU
bbc.com/news/articles/
Yes and no - you have to include Myanmar as a de facto Chinese colony similar to Cambodia. Independent yes, but …
A very overlooked part is that REE refinement is an extremely energy intensive process, plus the fact REE raw materials are often byproducts of other energy intensive processes (aluminum refinement/smelting). US does NOT have the energy infra to rebuild it. Neither Japan/Europe
All that refining will now be done in
Usa mexico canada south america vietnam Thailand phillipines africa
China just fucked itself bigly long term
Usa needs to get moving on subsidies for rare earth refineries
This is the golden moment!!!
Awesome;
Unprecedented dominance of critical Rare Earths.
China dominates the refining capacity of REE;
Why?
because Chinese were awake when World was asleep !
In all probability;
China would dominate most Critical Technologies and Fields in second half of the current Century !
The funny thing is Myanmar another important REE producer is basically just a Chinese REE extension
lazy people usually blame others for doing dirty work and complain about it
So let’s build refiners here then, yes they are dirty, but it’s a question of national security and survival.
Rare earths ARE RARE, not as share of the earth crust but in terms of economically viable deposits. That’s the first problem, then the environmental issue 1, radiation, the refining issue of metals with very similar properties and environmental issue 2 from the chemicals used
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Is this what ppl meant by "seize the means of production?"
It’s probably time to explore other options
However, without enough crude oil, it’s difficult to do business or war for that matter.
The wordcels are starting to get it. Still a long way to go, but the journey of 1,000 steps starts with the first.
Right, mining’s just the warm-up. If China’s running the refinery, they decide who gets to play in tech. Everyone else is just selling rocks and hoping for scraps!
Those wondering what REE is; heres a small ecosystem explained fellas..
Refining is one thing. Making the products with the refined metals is another.
I don’t know, isn’t holding 60% of the world production a domination?
If China doesn’t have it or do it themselves they have friendly relations & valued trade agreements with the countries that do & most of them are in BRICS/associate members. China’s sustainability & security has been planned for a long time. It won’t be defeated & weak again
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what US based companies do rare earth refining? potential governement acquistion target.
And although it will take some time, now, after what China has done, this will begin to change. The world is waking up once again. The West will only benefit from this.
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Exactly !!! US should be asking WHY they do not have a refinery for something so important to them.
Because they dont give a shit about their citzens 
We've developed much better & faster methods of REE that are being implemented even now.
We've developed much better & faster methods of REE that are being implemented even now.
Refining is a polluting process if not done in a intelligent method, Amuri a will soon find out
The west is a long due for this call to wake up and start building these "dirty" process on their soil...
And we can refine them if we tell the environmentalists to get stuffed
bad for the environment in Burma, obviously
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The Irrawaddy (Eng)
@IrrawaddyNews
Nineteen new Chinese-operated rare earth mines in territory controlled by the ethnic National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) in eastern Shan State pose an unacceptable threat to the environment, says the Shan Human Rights Foundation.
bit.ly/45GQFW0
Ummmm, do you know how to read/interpret a stacked bar chart?
China CLEARLY dominates both.
This is nothing to be celebrating in terms of supposed clean energy. This is the opposite of clean.
(China rare earth toxic nightmare)
doesn't have to stay that way
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Object Zero
@Object_Zero_
Rapid Rare Earth Reshoring
Much of the problem around rare earth processing is entirely fictional, China’s dominance in RE is not technological, it is merely environmental legislation arbitrage.
The West can almost immediately rebuild China’s reprocessing capacity in a
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The US have all these resources, Trump must use the production act, also refinery cz' be built fast, the president must use federal Land if needed. please put out a plan for this I know you are super busy but only you can plan something Quickly and efficiently
Fantastic visual showcasing China’s dominance in refining and processing. Bookmarked. Followed. TY 
I'd use a different Get chart to make that argument because 60% and 90% by a single country is domination. While the Biden administration in Feb. 2022 through the DoD Awarded $35 Million to MP Materials to Build U.S. Heavy Rare Earth Separation Capacity, nothing became of it.
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They do 60% of the mining so I think you can say that they dominate this too.
China has about 24 to 48 months of REE domination remaining. They better use that leverage now.
Green extremists and climate extremists outside of the PRC ensure that their own country will not refine any REE. "Not in my backyard "
That’s the rub, isn’t it? The refining of Rare Earth Elements (REE). #XiJinping has full control of the refining of REE. After all, if you can’t refine & process REE, you can’t use it, can you? What was the US doing while China was perfecting its control of REE?
China "cornered" the rare earth market because the mining and refining are quite dirty and environmentally unfriendly. The CCP's leaders didn't care, so the West was quite happy to offload the work. The political situation has changed, so now the work will come back to the US.
Shithole China is the world's largest polluters. So why are snowflakes supporting a country who us destroying the earth??